In the case of Zed Lothorien
by Lailee
Summary: Your classic "Save the Tsukasa" fic. Just for fun, not my best fic, oh well!


*NOTE: In this story, the party can be FOUR members. (  
  
I skidded across the marble floor in my striped socks and sprinted to the TV room. "Did you do it?! Did you do it!?" I questioned, harassing my older brother Ken. "Yeah, I did. Leave my presence." He said squinty-eyed, crawling back under the covers of the futon. "Thank you! I owe you one!" I screeched. "You owe me more than one, must've taken me ten hours to get that damn program to work with those fuckin' headsets. Jesus Christ, this thing better be worth it." he kept bitching but I couldn't hear him as I took off again. I ran to the den and booted up the computer. I sat, staring intently at the screen. I thought to myself, 'School's out for the summer! Yes! Okay, what was it called? Mac Anu? Something Capital. Aqua. Mac Anu Aqua Capital, that was it. Okay, and I am Zed, right? Yeah, Heavy Blade. Sounds cool." I'm usually not this active. You'll most likely find me sleeping or slacking off on schoolwork most of the time, or just playing video games. My brother Ken got out of school yesterday, so I made him set up this new computer game for me, it's called, "The World". Well, actually, it was more of a bribe than a favor. You see, I have some pictures of. never mind, that's not the point. I'm meeting my friends there. It's gonna be hard to recognize them. But they said that they would wait by the Chaos Gate for me. Whenever a player logged in, they would shout, "Cheese!" Then I would respond by yelling, "Cheddar?" and then it would be confirmed. It was Jena's idea. She figured it would be pretty easy for me to spot a group of people yelling about cheese. I walked over and shut the door and locked it. I heard some kid from my neighborhood had a seizure from this game so I was alert and ready to whip off the headset at any time. Of course, he had diabetes, so.The computer booted up and the Microsoft sound emitted from the overly large headphones. I quickly put them on and clicked on the icon. A huge window shot up taking over my whole screen. I clicked on it and put my login name and password. I immediately clicked on, "The World". A front page screen appeared with fancy artwork and what looked like a sword. I clicked on, "Login". A white and black sign flashed on my screen three times. It read, "Please secure all headsets and headphones. Place level on headphones to appropriate volume. Adjust the headset so that these colors show up clearly and you are not squinting. I saw the three test colors perfectly and I heard the little "ding" sound in both ears, just like those nagging school hearing tests. "Okay, here we go." I said to myself. I clicked on the screen once more. "Ugh." I sighed as another sign came up. It read, "Please secure all muscle stimulators to their correct place. Once secure, clench your fists once and wave twice to be sure that all systems are functioning properly." I did so and then I clicked again. "Ah, finally." I said. On the virtual headset, a label popped up. "Mac Anu Aqua Capital". It read in gold lettering with a fancy blue background. Finally, I saw myself. Or, my character rather. I had turquoise hair, a tan skin tone, huge turquoise eyes and matching apparel with appropriate silver armour. I also noticed I was lugging along a huge sword with a blue blue zigzag design. "Hmph, I look like I do in real life." I laughed to myself. "Whoa, I'm talking!" I announced as what I was saying was popping up in speech bubbles. "Cool!" I rejoiced. "CHEEEEEEEEEEESE!" yelled someone to my left. "Cheddar?" I answered, caught off guard. "Zoey!" they all yelled piling on top of me. "Argh!" I exclaimed as we all tumbled to the ground. 'Thank God I can't feel this.' I thought. Back on steady ground, Lori explained, "We're still waiting for Shane." We waited for a moment, and then Lori offered, "You know, you could go look around a bit. There's no rule against it." She said grinning with an oddly realistic smile. "Okay, nice excuse to get rid of me." I joked. "Be right back. Get me when they show up." I shouted as I zipped down the sandy steps. I stood there in awe. Something struck me right then and there, I stood on a wooden bridge and all around me, people were galloping around in suits of armour and clad in silky robes with huge staffs and swords. All chatting with one another and trading items I'd never heard of. The river gushed around below the bridge and small gondolas (those long Italian boats) swayed in the current, held fast by tied ropes. That's when it hit me, this was so much more than a game. "Wow." I said to myself and then felt stupid because the speech bubble was there watching, like an evil old nanny. The bubble soon faded away and I felt a little better. I immediately made up my mind, I HAD to see the rest of this place. I turned on my heel and started to take off. I was too busy admiring the almost purple sky to notice the little guy with the staff. "Hey! Watch where you're going!" I scolded absently. "Sorry, but I didn't run into you." He said looking up at me. "Well, you'd better.." I was at a loss for words. I just immediately felt bad for yelling at him, he looked so sad. I was again embarrassed by that damn bubble. We kept eye contact for about five seconds, it seemed like an eternity. I just got lost in those huge lavender eyes. They were violet, almost like the sky. That music, with the flutes or whatever, it was almost like.He blinked and abruptly looked away. "Nice, uh. running into you." He said looking over his shoulder and then jogging off. I just stood there. like an idiot. "You too." I said. Fucking speech bubbles. "Zoey! Come on!" I heard a familiar voice. There were all my friends, Shane, Jena and Lori standing there. "Let's go!" Shane yelled. "Okay." I said. I tuned around looking everywhere, nope, that kid was long gone. Oh well. Lori instructed us to all "huddle in a group". As we did, three sparkly rings surrounded us and I felt a strange lightheaded sensation. Soon enough, we were in what looked like a desert or a grasslands with little shrubs and LOTS of dust. Suddenly, a whooshing sound flooded into my ears and I jumped back in surprise. "Oh my God! AAAAAHHHHH!" I yelled as a huge moth fluttered out of the giant golden thing and started pelting my friends with a teal gum-like substance, liquid bullets I guess. I ducked out behind Shane and realized Lori had taken the moth out with one sweep of her axe. "Well, that was easy." She said congratulating herself. "Ugh. This is only the first level right?" I gasped. "Yep!" she responded gleefully, bounding off with Jena. "Zed, snap out of it." Shane said smiling. "Come on." He said as he followed them. I regretfully went with them. We made our way to the "dungeon", of course, I was stalling all the way, pointing out such trivial things like talking cacti and the trees. We descended into the firct floor and THREE moths swarmed out of the portal. Jena, Shane and Lori all got one and I stood there, looking like a frazzled child on the first day of school. "I leveled up! Booyah!" yelled Lori. "Cool..." I said feeling lightheaded again. We went into another room and a small gremlin hopped out of the portal with an oversized sword. They all stepped back, leaving me to fend for myself! "Get him, Zed!" they all cheered. I shut my eyes and swung blindly, letting out an "Argh." Or two. I kept swinging and swinging and swinging. "You did it! You did it!" Soon they were all cheering again, but his time I was glad. I stared at the disitgrating gremlin and a smirk spread over my face like the plague. "Let'g o kill some more!" I yelled. Killing gives you some sort of rush, in the game at least. After five more fields, everyone was ready to pack it in for the day. We all warped back to town and we all agreed to meet at Shane' s house the next day. Everyone was so exhausted in the real world from slashing monsters. They all signed out, but I stayed on, I had an insatiable taste for this game and I felt that if I logged off, I would lose all happiness. "Shit." I murmured. "I'm hooked." I said to myself, dangling my feet over the edge of the bridge. I swung them back and forth and stared into the water. I was soon lulled into a trance, or rather a daze. I must've sat there for hours, just swinging my feet, recalling my "awesome battles", which I later realized weren't so awesome. Someone tossed a rock in the water and the ripple woke me from my subconscious thoughts. I looked around and saw no one. I looked up, the sky was now a deep purple, like that boy's eyes. I got up and brushed myself off. I sighed and then looked around, there were only about twenty people there. I walked up to the stairs and turned for one last look before I went back into the real world. The world of mutiny and murderous people and lies. I should've just gone. I started to walk up the stairs, watching my feet so I wouldn't trip with my huge sword and look like an idiot. I ran head on into someone, "Geez, sorry, I'm not looking' where I'm going. Sorry, I." I trailed off. "Oh, hey." I said trying to force a smile. It was that guy. He simply nodded. "Hi." He said. 'Dammit, look away!' I was screaming in my head. Those eyes. "Well, uh, I'd better go." He said turning away. "Yeach, me too." I said, I was lying, my parents were going out tonight and Ken was without a doubt sleeping. I started to walk away. I shifted my gaze to the ground. A was about to log out when someone grabbed my arm. "Hey, the what hell..?!" I started. It was him, that guy. He quickly recoiled. "Sorry, I." he started and then looked away. "I'm so stupid, this is so awkward." He said truthfully. "No, I. uh, I don't mind." I said. I even surprised myself. "I shouldn't have snapped." I said apologetically. "It's okay." I said reassuringly. "Well uh, I was just wondering, err, can you go with me somewhere? I know it sounds weird but I found this place and I've been dying to show someone. It's okay if you don't wanna go. I mean. I really can't expect." "No, I'll go, I don't have anything better to do." I smiled. "Cool." He said. He walked up to the Chaos Gate and instead of putting in a password, he simply put the staff to the ground. I got that lightheaded feeling. "Ugh. Whoa." I said. I got his weird feeling that something was sucking air out of my chest and I had to take a deep breath. 'We must be going into an advanced server.' I figured. My friends had told me about that. As soon as I started, it was over. We were standing at what looked like the Grand Canyon, except. "Well, come here." He said walking over to the edge and sitting. I walked oover, stunned. I perched on a sturdy rock and looked as far as I could see. "Well, her it is." He said smiling. "Wow." I sat in awe. I felt in the presence of something. otherworldly. After a few minutes, I ventured, "So, uh, I guess this would be the right time, what's your name?" He hesitated, "Tsukasa. What about you?" he said not looking at me. "Well, I'm Zed. And my real name's Zoey, but my friends just call me Zed, hence the name." I said smiling. "So, what's your REAL name?" I asked. He looked down. "I don't know how to say this.. I really. I don't remember." Of course I was confused and he told this elaborate tale and all about how he had woken up in this cave and then he couldn't log out, and about this monster that followed him. Of course I believed him. We talked after that, it was getting light already. This game had real time and so I checked the clock. Whoa, it was 4:57 in the morning! I had gone with him at around six the previous night. "Tsukasa." I said. "Huh?" "What do you do? I mean, what do you do? How can you live without your family, friends, your house?" I asked, concerned. "I don't think of it as living, I think of it as. Surviving." "Tsukasa, I.. I really, I don't know what to say, I'm sorry, I gotta go." I said. I warped out. I logged out.I took off the virtual reality headset. I sighed as I wiped the sweat off my face. I was so. I don't know. It was just, this was all too sudden for me. I wanted to help him, but I thought that if I did, I would surely end up like he was. But, I was unsure of myself, and of him. His story was. uncommon and I didn't know what to make of it. I woke up the next morning with a headache, I felt like crap. Ken said it was from overexertion, he said I had played the game too long and it had messed with my head. I was scared, but I knew what I had to do. I logged back in. I was on my own, standing in the middle of Root Town in Delta Server. I was shouting, "Tsukasa! Tsukasa! Tsukasa where are you!? Tsukasa can you hear me?!" People gave me some pretty odd looks, I didn't care, I just wanted him to be safe. I sat on the bridge, I wandered around the shops, I must have asked one thousand people if they had seen him. I approached two men in strange looking outfits. I hadn't seen a character dressed like that in my travels, they wore a sort of maroon bodysuit with silver armour here and there, and their helmets, I hadn't seen anyone with a helmet. Their eyes were glowing blue, not their real eyes, the ones in the masks. Anyway, I approached them, "Excuse me, sirs. I'm sorry to bother you but if I could have a moment of your time, I would be very grateful." I said pleadingly. "Why certainly, what seems to be the problem?" one of them said. "Well, you see, I'm looking for a boy, his name is Tsukasa. He's a small wavemaster." The two soldiers stirred, their arms went back to their sides slowly. "I'm sorry, is there a problem? Did I say anything?" I said, worried. "No, please continue." He said, he twitched once, subconsciously I suppose. "You say you are a friend of this character?" asked one of them. "I am. I met him a short while ago and he said some interesting things to me and, well, he seems to be missing." I said, a little nervous. "You saw him yesterday, you say?" asked one of them. "Why would that." I started. I watched as one of them slowly withdrew his sword. I stepped back. "What exactly.?" I started. The other drew his sword and they slowly walked closer. As they gained on me, I realized they knew something I didn't, and this was my cue to exit. I ran. "Hey! Come back here!" they yelled. I left to a different server before they could summon any charms to keep me there. I don't know which one it was.. But I hadn't been there before. It had a lot of dust and it was very cold. There were strange pig-like creatures wandering around on the high wooden catwalks that swung perilously over valleys of mist. I ran to a hill and climbed up. I sat on a ledge for a while, crouched down and watching, waiting. The sun went down a bit, I climbed down. I slinked throughout the short trees and shrubs. I thought to myself, "What do they want with Tsukasa? Does it have anything to do with him not being able to log out? What will they do if they catch him?" My thoughts were interrupted by, "You are now under arrest by the 15th Squadron of the Crimson Knights. If you choose to come quietly, no harm will be done, if you resist, there will be consequences. Surrender now." "No!" I yelled as I ran to the strips of bridge. I tried to make my way through the maze of catwalk, but the sword was heavy, i.! Before I knew it, I was holding on to a plank with one hand, the other was too busy tightly holding the rope that bound the two planks together. I tried to pull myself up. Someone grabbed my arm and roughly pulled me back onto the bridge. "Umph." I landed on my shoulder and a loud crack echoed through my body. "Agh!" pain shot through my arm and I quickly went into a fetal position. "Get up!" someone shouted. "Get up now or we will use our weapons!" I kicked my sword aside to show I was giving up. While one of them was picking up the sword, I managed to jump up and kick the guy who had it right in the... Then, as he stumbled a little, I grabbed the sword. I then swung it around in a 360 with all my might, hitting most of them pretty bad. I then turned to the one that looked like the leader, with red eyes and horns. He made a grunting noise as he practically tried to bowl me over. "Aieeeee!!!! Ya!!!!!" I thrust the sword through his armor and his empty gray shell fell to the ground. I made a run for it. "Get her! Get her now! Do not let her get away again!" I ran to the Choas Gate and made my way back to Root Town. I panicked, which way do I turn? Where do I go? I tried to log out, but one of them had already sighted me and was looming around the Gate to make sure I wasn't going anywhere. I felt very lightheaded, like I had just gotten a killer migraine. 'Oh Crap,' I thought, 'How I am outside The World must be affecting the virtual me, too.' I fell to the ground. My arm felt as if it had broken in half and was now being prodded with needles. I felt lightheaded and dizzy. Everything went black. When I woke up, I was alone in a dank cavern. "Uh." I stood up. "Hello?" I said. My arm felt better, a lot better, but it still throbbed occasionally. A million thoughts were racing through my head, 'Where am I? How long have I been here? What's going on?' "Miss.Zed?" someone asked timidly. "Huh?" I was confused, I didn't see anyone. "Zed?" the voice asked again. I then saw the owner of the voice step out of the shadows near the exit. A woman with a blue dress, blue hair and an axe, she looked kind of like Lori. "A Heavy Axeman." I thought. She had a kind, but worried expression on her face. I was feeling okay until she stepped forward and I recognized those two men accompanying her. I stepped back. I backed into a wall. "Zed, we aren't here to harm you, we just need adequate information from a trustworthy source." She said truthfully. I looked at her, "What makes you think I'm trustworthy. What makes you think I'm not lying about that kid?" I said scoffing and clenching my sword. "Because as I understand it, you appealed to my knights about a player named Tsukasa. Had you not, we would have assumed you did not have a clue." She said keeping calm and quiet. "Well, what if i. Agh!" I cried out and fell to the floor, my arm felt as if it were being sliced up from the inside out. "Why can I feel this?!" I yelled, gritting my teeth. Remorse spread over the woman's face. "I'm sorry Zed, you are not supposed to. Ever since you came in contact with the wavemaster, you can expect out of the ordinary things to occur." She explained, looking pained. "Why am I here?!" I yelled as the pain shot through again. "We need information from you, Zed." She explained. "Well, you're not getting it! So just leave me alone!" I yelled. I started crying. Crying? How can I be crying? It's just a game, right? What the fuck, I never cry... WHAT'S GOING ON?! "We will give you time, but it would be appreciated if you would cooperate with us." I didn't answer, I just stood up and leaned against a boulder near the wall. What is wrong with me? An arm couldn't do this much damage, this shouldn't be happening. *Flashback: Overexertion* I thought to myself, 'Am I ever gonna get out of here?' I fell asleep. I woke up, some hours later. I was in a strange place. There was a bed beside me, and there was a girl floating above it, she was dressed in flowing white robes. I stood. "Come with me." Tsukasa said. "Tsukasa.? Heh? Wha? Tsukasa, is this some kind of joke cuz it's really not." That thing happened again and I knew we were going into the different server again. My feet landed. "Umph.. Huh?" I was at the grand canyon place again. Tsukasa sat on the ledge. His eyes were calm and beautiful. His hair tousled from the late night wind. He had a pleased smirk on his face. His hands were rested behind his head and he leaned up on a rock. He raised an eyebrow, as if checking me out. When I realized he was indeed looking me up and down, I felt violated, wearing nothing but skimpy armour that made me especially whorish. Geez, you could see half my boobs, what's up with that?! I didn't like him anyways, well, like that.I think. Why is it I felt he could see right through me? It made me feel weird. Being practically naked in front of a guy I hardly knew. I felt I should reserve at least a little pride! I mocked, "Stupid Pervert! Fuck off! You know, I'm not ALL fanservice!" and took a more aggressive stance and tried to look tougher by crossing my arms. I sucked air in quickly because of the dull pain in my elbow. "What did they do?" he asked, looking concerned and standing up. "Tried to get me. They know we know each other. They captured me. I think I broke my arm." I said rubbing my elbow. "Hm, that sucks." He closed his eyes and his facial expression changed, almost like he was talking with someone. Then he opened his eyes and he said, "Feel any better?" I flexed my elbow. "How'd you do that?" I asked, amazed. "I have my ways." He responded with a smirk. "Come sit." He said. I did, I was so tired. We talked for a while. He eventually said, "Do you have a boyfriend?" "Are you trying to hit on me!? Cuz, I'm really not interested, I mean, I'm not into you, no offense but, this is just a game and afterall, there are plenty of guys at my school that.." I said. "No, just asking. I wouldn't do that. We're friends." He said cutting in the middle of my speech. "Friends." I returned the smile. And so, that night, I fell asleep with my "friend". No, you sick bitch/bastard, we fell asleep in the G rated way. Stupid. I had my head on a rock and he went off somewhere over the rainbow so no one would get suspicious. Tsukasa came back a little later, seemingly from nowhere. We went out and about in our little canyon and that night went back to the ledge. I got into the little cove and was about to fall asleep. He was kneeling there. "Zed," "Huh?" "Don't you have a family to get back to? I mean, I can't, but you can, why do you spend so much time here?" he asked, confused. "Well," I started. "I guess to be around you. I mean, you're stuck here and I really wanna help you, so, I stay here so that I can be around you when you need someone." I responded, trying to put my thoughts into sentences. "But, just because of my misfortune, you shouldn't waste your time here." He said. I mean, you can, why don't you go? I'm fine, really." he asked again. "Why?" I asked. He nodded yes. "Because.. I don't really know. But I do know one thing, I'm sick of running." I said defiantly. "What do you mean by that?" he asked, with a troubled look on his face. "Well, I mean, I'm thinking about turning myself in to the Crimson Knights so they can get what they want." I said. "But, you say you want to help me, and here you are threatening to kill me! I don't get it." He said getting really worried. "Silly, silly Tsukasa. No, you don't get it. I do want to help you, that's why I'm going to say that I am Tsukasa. The wavemaster part was just a scam. I'm here for you, dude, I wouldn't do something like that." I said smiling. "Thanks." Was all he could say, he smiled too. He went away somewhere again and I warped back to Root Town. I stood on the platform where the Chaos Gate was. I raised my hands and yelled, "Okay Crimson People! I am here and I am willing to talk! Come and escort me somewhere where we can talk! If you're still interested!" I crossed my arms. Geez, if they really were "supermoderators", they sure as hell were slower than I thought. "Well, any day now!" I yelled. People walking by gave me strange looks. I responded with, "What are you looking at, huh?" and "Take a picture, it'll last longer." After a few minutes, they appeared. "Let's go." I said, stepping down the stairs. I breathed in a sigh of relief.it was all over.  
  
This is me, Tsukasa speaking. After that day, I never saw Zed again. I don't know what happened to her. I tried sending her flashmail a thousand times, she never responded. To this day, I do not know anything about her. I constantly wonder, is she still alive? I guess I'll never know. I'll be in here forever, or at least.as long as The World is still up and running. That's what they said, at least. You see, I died in the real world. so I'm saved in this game, almost like a program, my file is engrained onto the World database and that's the only way I'm still here. I'm only here virtually and mentally, but my physical body and mind are gone, I don't quite understand how just playing a game at the time of the incident would save me, but.I'm not complaining. ( Everyone knows about me now, and System Admin is letting me stay on the database. I later met Lady Subaru.she was very kind to me and attempted to track down my family in the real world, but.she told me something that changed my virtual life forever. My whole family was killed in an accident of some kind, the circumstances were unclear, and so.there was no one left in the real world for me anyways, so.was this whole ordeal a curse.or perhaps a gift? The Crimson Knights won't tell me about Zed, or what happened. But, thanks to her, I get to live again, she solved the mystery of The World. So, to Zed, wherever you are, thank you..  
  
This is Zed speaking. I'm now 17 and I have just moved into my own apartment. No, nothing serious happened to me, I just choose not to play the World anymore. Well, I don't know why, it was too time-consuming and plus.I had quite a scare the last time I played. My brother was right, after talking with the Crimson Knights about Tsukasa for five hours, I got so exhausted I just collapsed. Ken found me in the den after picking the lock and got me in an ambulance, thank god. I later destroyed ALL my blackmail on him, a deal is a deal, you know. Anyway, the doctors told me I couldn't go back into the game without life support or something, because the effects would be double, and even I'm not that strong. I sometimes pass out and wake up hours later, and I have these strange dreams a lot, but the doctor tells me it'll pass in a few years, or maybe months if I'm lucky. ( Anyway, I hope that Tsukasa got justice, and that he got out of the world finally. Over Spring Break, I plan on going back in as Zed, one last time to say goodbye to everyone in The World I knew and then I am going to destroy my copy of the game so I won't get hurt anymore, emotionally and physically, besides I have a real life out here, and that's good enough for me. ( Hope you enjoyed the story. 


End file.
